Kaufman Studios To Build Two More Sound Stages in Astoria

Kaufman Astoria Studios (KAS) announced last week that it will build two new sound stages on its campus in Astoria, Queens. The upgrade will bring the total number of stages at the complex to twelve. This includes the only outdoor back lot in New York City.

According to the statement, the stages will be located at the corner of 34th Avenue and 36th Street. They are designated as Stage O, which will be 15,000+ square feet, and Stage N, which will be 8,500+ square feet.

Image Via Kaufman Studios

The two stages will be housed in a single building so that they can accommodate one large production or two separate productions. The building will be four stories high, with approximately 26,000 square feet of ancillary production space and 45,000 square feet of office space on the upper floors. It will also include an underground parking garage.

Hal Rosenbluth, President and CEO of kaufman Astoria Studios was pleased with the arrangment, saying.

“There is no better place to make a movie or TV show than New York City. With the tremendous growth of the entertainment industry here, our stages are constantly occupied, and we’re thrilled that with the new stages we will be able to expand the number of productions that call New York home.”

Kaufman Studio expects to break ground on the new stages in fall of 2016, with an anticipated construction schedule of 18 – 24 months.

Kaufman has a long line of history for the New York Film Industry, built in 1920, it was the original home of Paramount Pictures, with over 100 silent films made on its sound stages.

Images Via Kaufman Studio

Today, top Hollywood film, television, and digital on-demand series are made at the studio. Some famous titles include Money Monster, How to Be Single and Birdman, the Netflix hit Orange is the New Black, AMC’s Feed the Beast, NBC’s Shades of Blue, Showtime’s The Affair, and Sesame Street, which has filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios since 1992.

Other recent TV and film productions include Nurse Jackie, Deliver Us From Evil, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Men in Black 3, and The Bourne Ultimatum.